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Finding an easy and inexpensive way to pay for things while overseas is a challenge that many international travellers face. So when it looked like the Wise card could be a good solution, I decided to give it a go on my most recent trips. This Wise card review will take you through my experience travelling with the card.
My reasoning for doing a review is that I know how useful a good travel card can be. Options for these kinds of things generally depend on which country you’re from, with some countries like the US having more choices than others. Coming from Australia, our options are far fewer, and I’m sure we’re not alone. So hopefully, this review of the Wise card that is widely available across the world can help you see if it’s a useful option for you or not.
Disclaimer: This is not financial advice and I am not a financial advisor. I do not know your financial situation or whether this product will be specifically right for you. This is simply a review of my experience using the Wise Card as a consumer. Please check the Wise website for latest rates/fees and do your own due diligence.
What is the Wise Card?
Wise, formerly TransferWise, is an online foreign exchange service based in London. I’ve been using Wise for a while now to send/receive money from overseas for work. It’s very useful to be able to provide banking details in other countries to receive payments.
They use the mid-market exchange rate for conversions and their transfer fees are considerably lower than alternatives such as Paypal in my experience. There are even tables they provide to show you how they compare to the competition.
The Wise card is simply a Visa debit card associated with your Wise account. It lets you pay for things using the money stored in your Wise account. Like with travel cards, you can store money in different currencies, but it will also auto-convert at the current rate if you don’t have money stored in the necessary currency.
If you’re curious, you can read here about how Wise is regulated according to your country’s laws.
Who is the Wise Card For?
Generally speaking, I believe anyone travelling internationally can get value out of using a Wise card. However, it’s much more useful if you’re already using Wise to receive different currencies from overseas. That’s because it saves you the step of loading funds onto your card’s account and the small associated fee for doing so.
As such, the Wise card is well-suited to digital nomads and freelancers with international clients. If you get paid in USD, Euros, GBP etc., you can get them sent to your Wise bank details and access them easily with your card. At the moment, they support 40 currencies, with information on which currencies come with bank details here.
Wise Cash Withdrawals
Beyond just charging expenses to the card using your funds, you can also use the Wise card to withdraw cash at ATMs. This has turned out to be my favourite use for the Wise card, as cash is still very important when travelling in some countries like Japan and South Korea.
What’s good about the Wise card is the way its fees are done. Each calendar month, you’re given two withdrawals up to a certain threshold without any rates or fees. This excludes any fees the ATM merchant may charge of course.
But even once you reach three withdrawals or go over the free limit, the fees and rates are minimal (in my opinion). In Australia, for example, the free threshold is AU$350, after which it’s a 1.75% fee, and after the first two withdrawals a $1.50 fee.
The threshold and fee for your withdrawals do depend on where you’re from, but they were favourable compared to my previous go-to travel card. And if you’re able to be strategic with your timing, like I was in Japan and South Korea, you can avoid them.
Benefits of a Wise Card
While using the Wise card these last few trips, I’ve encountered a few scenarios where I’ve been glad to have it with me.
- It’s always helpful to have more than one card when you travel, in case you run into a problem with one. Having a Visa card is also useful if your other card is a Mastercard in case of card/vendor problems or restrictions.
- Rather than being strictly a debit card or a currency card, the Wise card feels like a hybrid of both. It lets you take advantage of favourable exchange rates but doesn’t limit you if you exhaust funds in one currency either.
- I ran into problems with my other credit card in Japan when trying to buy train tickets and at other times in South Korea. Thankfully, my Wise card worked fine and I think it was because it had the local currency stored on it.
- Like other bank cards, you can add your Wise card to your smartphone to pay with Google Pay or Apple Pay.
Flaws of the Wise Card
My one and only small gripe with the Wise card has been when I’ve depleted my funds in the local currency.
When that happens, it auto-converts the remaining balance from one of your other stored currencies. Unfortunately, it’s taken from my Euros account in that situation and I wanted to keep my Euros for later to withdraw as cash. I can’t seem to find an option to nominate the default secondary currency to withdraw funds.
Managing the Card Through the App
Having an app for banking these days isn’t anything new or special.
But I will say that the Wise app is especially easy to use and does help you manage your card. Go into the app and you can see for instance how far off the withdrawal threshold you are. You can also easily see your funds, add money, freeze the card, or even change which payment methods you want to allow for it.
The app also makes it very easy to see the details of transactions and cash withdrawals. They clearly break down the fees associated with a withdrawal, so that there’s no confusion where you stand.
Getting a Wise Card
The process for getting a Wise Card couldn’t be simpler. Either log in or create a new account, and then pay a small one-time fee (currently US$9) for the card to be sent to you. They’ll also provide you with a digital card immediately so that you can get started using it online.
Have you tried using the Wise card as a travel card? What more information would you like from this Wise card review? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
